About the Program

AAM’s 2027 Advocacy Scholarships Program is a professional development opportunity that provides a travel stipend for museum professionals interested in advocacy to attend the AAM Museums Advocacy Day, February 22-23, 2027 in Washington, DC. The program is designed to allow those who are interested in attending this annual event but are unable to due to logistics or funding. Together as a field, we’ve defeated several threats to eliminate federal agencies supporting museums and helped secure billions of dollars in financial relief that enabled many museums to survive and saved thousands of museum jobs. As museums across the country continue to recover and serve their communities in powerful ways, we must keep making our case to Congress. This program is focused on allowing even more to join the effort by providing a $1000 stipend for travel costs for eligible applicants and pending final financial approval.

The application period closes on November 30th. Applicants will be notified on, or before December 11th.

Eligibility

Applications are encouraged from individuals (members or non-members) at various stages of their careers who would not otherwise be able to afford the cost of attendance. The program is designed to bring together museum professionals who want to tell their stories to Congress and learn more about their role in advocacy.

Preference will be given to applicants who fit one or more of the following:

• Are from underrepresented advocacy states,
• Are from museums located in rural communities or areas with logistical travel issues,
• Are from small museums, ethnically or culturally specific institutions, or specialized/single-topic museums,
• Are first-time AAM Museums Advocacy Day attendees.

If you are selected to receive an AAM Advocacy Scholarship, you will receive:

• Complimentary registration to AAM’s Museums Advocacy Day
• One year of AAM Individual Professional Membership*
• A thousand ($1000) travel stipend to be applied to their travel (driving, plane fees, hotel, etc).

*Current AAM Individual Professional Members will receive a one-year complimentary renewal on their current membership

AAM 2027 Scholarship Recipients will be required to:

• Participate in a pre-conference call
• Attend the Advocacy Day training session and Congressional meetings
• Scholarship recipients are expected to follow any AAM 2027 guidelines provided by AAM before and throughout the conference.

How to Apply

The application period closes on November 30th. Applicants will be notified on, or before December 11th.

To be considered for a scholarship, applicants must submit the following information with their application:

For over 15 years, Museums Advocacy Day has been providing the essential training and support advocates need to meet effectively with members of Congress and their staff. This is a unique opportunity to unite with museum colleagues and supporters from across the country as one voice to reaffirm our essential value, collective contributions, and aspirations. Please prepare a single essay (no longer than 500 words) addressing the following questions:

• What has driven your interest in advocacy?
• What, if any, experience do you have with advocacy at the federal, state, or local level?
• What do you hope to get out of the experience?
• How will you plan to share knowledge from the conference in your work or academic studies?

Their resume/curriculum vitae (2-page limit)

Please send all documents to advocacy (at) aam-us.org

Please note: All essays submitted must be original to the author. Submissions may not be generated by artificial intelligence. If the submission has been substantively assisted by artificial intelligence (including large language models or similar technologies), the applicant must disclose this use and provide appropriate attribution within the work. Failure to do so will result in the scholarship review committee rejecting the essay.